Oh, Christmas Forest
by repmetsyrrah
Summary: Clark really wants his first Christmas with Lois and Jason to be special. Lois really wants to stop Jason from cutting down the whole forest.


**A/N: **Set about a year after Superman Returns. Written for the 12DaysofClois Christmas challenge, prompt #17 Wintery Kiss & Cut Tree.

**Oh, Christmas Forest**

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Walking through a freezing, snow-covered forest in god-only-knows-where was not really how Lois Lane wanted to spend the start of her Christmas holidays.

But it was Clark's first Christmas with her and Jason and he was so eager to make it a good one. So when he'd suggested to Jason that they could get a real tree from a real forest and both of them had turned to her with their matching and stupidly adorable eyes, pleading with her, she had been absolutely powerless to say no.

"Where are we?" she asked, finally giving up trying to work it out herself.

"We're just around the middle of Canada," Clark told her.

"Really?" Lois couldn't help sounding surprised. It seemed like they'd flown for much longer than that.

"I didn't want to go too far, it would be a bit suspicious if we had a live tree from several continents away."

Lois was reasonably sure none of their friends were botanists but it was a good point. Clark had more than one person to protect now and he wasn't taking any chances.

"Dad! I found one!" Jason's voice rang loudly through the trees. Clark hurried over to him, Lois following a lot more slowly, grumbling under her breath about the cold and the rocks.

"This one?" Clark asked as he reached his son standing in front of what could possibly be the tallest tree in the entire forest. "Uhhh…"

"Jason, I'm not sure that will fit in our apartment," Lois told the excited boy, having to bite back a laugh as he turned to her with a sad look. The tree almost looked like it would be taller than the entire building.

"Really?"

"It does look a tad too tall, buddy," Clark told him apologetically.

"Awww." Jason took one last, longing look at the tree before sighing and continuing to a much more reasonably sized patch of pines.

Lois grumbled again and this time Clark took the hint and wrapped and arm around her, warming her up and carrying her down over the worst of the rocks.

"This one!" Jason exclaimed, several minutes later.

"Are you sure?" Clark asked, looking at the tree which, thankfully would fit in the apartment.

"Yeah, this one."

Clark looked at Lois who nodded approvingly at the smaller, but still lovely looking tree.

"Alright then." A short burst of heat vision and the smell of burst wood later and the tree was off its stump in Clark's grasp.

"Shall we take it home and decorate it then?" he asked, holding the tree up in one hand and looking at it approvingly.

"Can we stay longer?" Jason asked pleadingly. "I like it here."

Clark threw Lois a questioning look and she sighed. "Just a few more minutes," she conceded, hoping they would be back in their heated apartment in Metropolis soon.

She was wrong.

"This one!" Jason exclaimed twenty minutes later, pointing to another tree that Lois had to admit, did look pretty nice.

But- "Jason, we already have one," Lois reminded him, gesturing to Clark who held up the other tree as if to remind the boy in case he'd simply forgotten.

"But- but- this one's _better,_" Jason insisted, turning the full force of his wide-eyes and pout onto his mother.

"Jason," Lois sighed, ignoring his face, no matter how adorable he knew he looked. It had taken several years but she could resist the look now, though she wasn't entirely immune and there was a small voice in her head that still urged her to fold.

Unfortunately Clark hadn't been so well trained and Jason simply turned to look at him instead.

"Well," Clark sighed, bitting his lip, "I guess if I left this one here it would just become another part of the forest, it would do _too_ much harm."

"Yeah," Jason agreed, pressing his advantage with all the skill of a child who knew he was close to getting his way, "we learnt about that in school, the bugs can live in it. And we can take this one home."

Lois opened her mouth to disagree but before she could there was the smell of charred wood and Clark was holding two trees. He placed the other one on the ground carefully.

"Okay, now we should be getting back."

"What if there's a better one though?" Jason asked, sounding upset. Clark _had_ promised him the best tree in the whole forest.

"Jason, we can't cut down the whole forest," Lois told him, "someone might notice."

"But…" Jason turned his eyes on Clark again.

"Um-"

"Jason, why don't you go have a look at the pond down there," Lois suggested, before Clark could give in again. "I need to discuss some Christmas things with your Dad."

Jason grinned, probably assuming they would discuss his presents and bounded off to look at the iced over pond Lois had spotted.

"Lois-"

"_Clark_." Lois gave him a hard look, hoping he'd explain exactly what he thought he was doing before the whole forest was gone.

"Lois," Clark repeated, "maybe we should look a little more, he really wants a good tree."

"He was happy with that one a few minutes ago and he'll be happy with it back in the apartment."

"Yeah but he-"

"Clark," Lois sighed, recognising the expression on his face, "you are a good Dad, and you will be a great one but you can't be afraid to say no to him."

"I just…" he hesitated for a moment, making sure Jason was still occupied out of earshot, "I just want to make this a great Christmas for him."

The look on Clark face was screaming what he really meant though. _I just want him to like me._

Lois definitely knew that feeling. As soon as Jason had started to talk she had been terrified of being one of those mothers whose children hated them and given in to his every request. It had taken her own mother to remind her that she hadn't given Lois and Lucy everything they wanted and Lois didn't hate her.

"There's something you should know," Lois sighed, looking Clark in the eye, "Jason is not always going to like you."

"I-" Clark started, looking confused.

If it had been another issue and if there hadn't been just a glimmer of hurt behind those gorgeous blue eyes, Lois might have left him hanging for a while longer. But it wasn't a joking matter so she continued quickly.

"He will _always_ love you," she told him firmly, "but you're his parent, it's his duty as a child to not like us sometimes, he'll probably even hate us when he's a teenager but so long as he knows we love him unconditionally he'll always love us too."

Clark looked torn. The tree was hanging from his hand, almost forgotten behind him as he looked to where Jason was hitting the ice with a stick.

"Clark,' Lois repeated, "believe me, it's not fun the first time he gets mad at you but if you want to really be his Dad, you're going to have to get very used to it."

Finally he sighed. "I guess you're right."

"That's another thing you're going to have to get used too," Lois teased him, grinning when he smiled at her and pulled her into a kiss.

"What would you do without me, Mr. Kent?" Lois asked after they pulled apart.

"I never want to find out," Clark assured her.

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